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On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Joseph P. McDonald manned the switchboard at Fort Shafter in Hawaii when he received the alarming message that radar had detected a large number of planes approaching from the north, heading fast for Oahu.
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Motorists who use the Pango mobile app to pay at parking meters in Scranton will get reimbursed for any inadvertent overcharges since Sept. 1, the new operator of the city’s parking system said.
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On June 15, 1923, they received their charter - No. 417 - and 30 prominent business and professional women of Scranton became the first members of the Scranton Business and Professional Women's Club. They elected Mary Tripp as their president.

The group had already existed as the Scranton Branch of the National Women's Association of Commerce. But when they discovered that a national federation existed, they decided to become affiliated with it. The National Federation was organized in St. Louis in 1919. According to the Business and Professional Women's Foundation, as the nation mobilized to join the First World War, the federation grew out of a movement to organize women and their various skills.

1923 was a big year for the Scranton club. It was represented for the first time at a state convention. Five members journeyed to Philadelphia to attend. There were just two other business and professional women's clubs in the state at the time - in Hazleton and Stroudsburg. From that time on, so many members of the Scranton club attended state and national conventions that they earned a reputation as "the goingest club in the state."

At home, they were just as active. In 1925, the club established a Milk Fund, which gave either a quart or a pint of milk per day, according to need, to families all over the city. The fund continued until 1927, when it became the Memorial Education Fund. The new fund was first used to pay for music lessons for a girl who had a promising voice but no money to fund her musical education. The following year, the fund was made into an educational loan fund for girls who wished to attend business schools. The first loan was given to a girl to pay for tuition at the Powell School of Business. Charles Powell took an interest and furnished $25 worth of books and supplies to the girl. Later, the fund expanded to include girls who sought education to prepare for a professional career.

The Great Depression brought attention to the economic realities of women's lives. "The present crisis for women is one of economic security," Mrs. Beulah Manley told a gathering of the club at the Hotel Casey in May 1937. The international relations chairwoman of the Business and Professional Women's Clubs was also a supervisor of home economics in Williamsport public schools. The status of women had reached its apex during the war, she explained. But it had decreased legally, economically and politically since then.

For women, that meant a struggle to feed and clothe their children. These difficult years found members of the Scranton club giving their own money many times to assist the area's families in need. They gave clothes and financial assistance. They donated generously to the Soup Fund that provided nutrition to children. A special fund assisted local high school girls, several of whom were given eyeglasses so they could continue their studies.

During World War II, the women rallied to the cause, purchasing a total of 20 $100 defense bonds and later cashing them in to help several girls complete their college education. In 1943, at the 20th anniversary celebration of the club, guest speaker Mrs. Harold Case said that, in the past, women's contributions were made without benefit of spotlight and were discredited by men as being of secondary importance.

But all that was changing. Women could now accomplish anything they wished to accomplish, Mrs. Case declared. "Woman is taking a more prominent place of responsibility than she has ever known or dreamed about before," she said. And the Business and Professional Women's Club was there to help make it happen.

CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Visit her at scrantonhisto ry.com. Contact the writer: localhistory@timesshamrock.com.

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